Background

I recently had the pleasure of co-moderating with Jo Hart (blog: http://johart1.edublogs.org, twitter: @JoHart) and Clive Elsmore (blog: http://cliveinsrilanka.blogspot.com, twitter: @CliveSir) three training sessions for people who were about to present at a forthcoming Reform Symposium virtual conference. The team work was wonderful, and the attendees were terrific. In terms of helping the presenters feel more confident about using a virtual presentation tool, the three sessions undoubtedly reached the objective.

One Difficult Attendee

It is in the nature of these sorts of workshops that attendees will make mistakes, and accidentally press the wrong buttons. This happened early on in all three sessions; it is much better that presenters learn from their mistakes in this context rather than when presenting to a “real” audience. However, in the last session this carried on rather longer than usual. With some detective work by Clive, and some quick thinking by Jo, we thought that we had identified the individual who was ruining it for everybody else.

It was the same individual that had come into the e-room in a state of inebriation, and who had a tendency to dominate proceedings.

Jo took away all removable privileges from him. However, he continued to make a nuisance of himself in text chat.

I was then confronted with a very difficult decision. Was this individual indeed the cause of all the disruption? What if he really was a presenter? Should I eject him from the e-room? It was perfectly obvious that all the other attendees had had enough of whoever was causing all the disruption. He was also making destructive comments in the text chat.

In the end, I ejected the individual. Things settled down immediately. He came back into the e-room a minute or so later. I again ejected him in a matter of seconds. He did not return. The end-of-session review, and also the subsequent comments on Jo’s blog, show just how negative the other attendees felt about him.

A Review

It is never pleasant having to eject somebody from a gathering. Despite that, I am glad that I did so, for the benefit of everybody else.

If, as a moderator, you ever find yourself confronted with a similar situation, you may think of this post, and know that you are not alone. When you must, eject knowing that you are doing the right thing!